Japan Trying to Keep Isle From Disappearing

TOKYO — Japan will start work early next year on a $220-million plan to stop a tiny uninhabited Pacific island from being washed away, the construction ministry said Thursday.

Okinotori Island, 1,100 miles south of Tokyo, has been so badly eroded by waves that its rocks are barely visible at high tide, ministry officials said. Disappearance of the island would mean the loss of Japan's southernmost area with its surrounding territorial waters, the officials said.

The ministry will spend $50 million by next March in the first part of a three-year plan to fortify the rocks.